PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
2 
piceous in colour, with a slight glaucous bluish bloom. Seeds [fig. 9], six or seven under each scale; 
small, flat, with a narrow wing surrounding the body of the seed; germinal leaves, two. 
This species grows to the size of a large tree (there is no doubt about that), but the exact extent 
of its dimensions is more questionable. Gordon says, “Trees from 10 to 15 feet or more in girth are 
common, and one at a place called Urcho, in the Kothee State, north of Simla, is said to be 6 or 7 feet 
in diameter.” He adds, “ Major Madden says the Limestone Mountains of Nynee Tal are covered 
with clumps of the most stately trees, the height of many of them at least 150 feet, and all as straight 
as an arrow, with the branches drooping slightly towards the ground, and so arranged as to make the 
tree a perfect cone ; the largest specimen measured by him being 16J feet in girth at 5 feet from the 
ground, and the spread of its branches 24 feet on each side; but about 12 feet is the average girth of the 
finer specimens at Nynee Tal, where the tree is commonly called * Raisulla,’ or King Pine.” 
We have been unable to meet with the passage from which Mr Gordon has extracted this statement 
by Major Madden ; but the description is so unlike that of Cupressus torulosa , that we cannot help thinking 
that some mistake has crept in. Trees “150 feet in height, all as straight as an arrow,” obviously alluding 
to the trunk or single stem of the tree, “ with the branches drooping slightly to the ground, and so arranged 
as to make the tree a perfect cone,” certainly correspond much better with “the Black Fir,” or Picea 
Pindrow, than with the Cypress ; and Major Madden, in his “ Observations on Himmalayan Conifers ” 
(reprinted in Journ. Hort. Soc., v. p. 228), says, when speaking of Pinus excelsa, that that Pine is 
common in Kumaon (Nynee Tal is the most southern mountain in Kumaon, indeed, speaking 
generally, the most southern mountain of the Himmalayan range, and is stridfly Lower Kumaon), “ under 
the Kusiya name of Raisulla and the Bhotiyah Lumsking, identical with those given by Loudon, 
Lavishing and Raisulla , the former being the Leem of Koonawur ; and Raisulla (applied in Lower 
Kumaon to the Black Fir and Cypress) denoting ‘ King of Pines,’ &c., and may possibly have led to the 
specific name excelsa.” If we take Mr Gordon’s quotation, then, according to the letter, the stately trees of 
the size specified found on the Nynee Tal were trees of Cupressus torulosa ; but,if we take it according 
to the spirit, then it may be that Major Madden was speaking of the size of the trees generally, 
not of the Raisulla trees in particular in that district. As we see that both Picea Pindrow and Cupressus 
torulosa bear the name Raisulla there, it is possible that there may be some confusion between Major 
Madden’s description and Mr Gordon’s extract. 
It is more, however, to the facies of the tree, “straight as an arrow, with slightly drooping branches 
and a perfedl cone,” than to its size, that our doubt applies. It is certainly found along with Picea 
Pindrow , and by all accounts (we have not many) reaches a great size. Dr Jameson, in his “ Physical 
Aspect of the Punjaub” (Hort. Soc. Journ., viii. p. 312), says of Cupressus torulosa, called, according to 
him, Surroo by the natives, “ At Nynee Tal, trees of Surroo of vast dimensions occur, the largest girthing 
upwards of 24 feet, and rising to the height of 80 feet.” But our confidence in this, again, is immediately 
shaken by Dr Jameson saying in the same sentence, “ Near Simla, in the neighbourhood of the temple, it 
is met with and styled Deodar. The Deodar, therefore, known to the natives of Simla, is the Cupressus 
torulosa , and not the Deodar, it being styled by them, as already noticed, the Keloo.” Upon some pack¬ 
ages of seeds of Cupressus torulosa , sent to the Royal Horticultural Society by the Countess Canning, 
there was a similar remark as to the confusion at Simla between the Deodar and this Cypress, both of 
which occur there. 
Dr Hooker suggests that Cupressus torulosa may be the wild state of the common Cypress, C. 
sempervirens. That it may be originally derived from it we do not doubt; but it appears to us to have 
acquired sufficient individuality to be entitled to be reckoned a distinct species. 
Geographical Distribution. —Dr Hooker states that this is a rare plant in the Himmalayas, and is, 
moreover, apparently confined to the Western Himmalayas. It may perhaps be hereafter found in the 
eastern part of this range; but it has not yet been so, although Loudon and others have designated it the 
“ Bhotan Cypress.” It is found in the province of Gurwal, and there it is in the eastern part of the 
province; 
